1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slide rail (or slide rail unit) for smoothly guiding a pulling or drawing motion of an object, such as drawer, to be pulled out from a body structure such as furniture, desk or like.
2. Related Art
A slide rail (unit) is known as a member which is attached to, for example, a drawer of a furniture, desk or like so as to allow the drawer to be easily and smoothly opened or closed. Such slide rail is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-open (KOKAI) Publication No. SHO 51-048046. This Japanese Patent Laid-open (KOKAI) Publication No. SHO 51-048046 corresponds to DE 2540656, GB 1512069, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,273. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,273 is incorporated by reference in its entirety
The slide rail is generally composed of an outer rail (member) and an inner rail (member) which is fitted to the outer rail. A number of balls are disposed between these outer and inner rails. In general, the outer rail is attached to a body structure of furniture, for example, and the inner rail is attached to the drawer. Further, it is to be noted that the slide rail unit is mentioned herein as slide rail which is generally composed of the outer rail and the inner rail. In this structure, when an external force is applied to the inner rail, the balls roll between the inner and outer rails, and the inner rail is therefore slid with respect to the outer rail. Further, in order to make large a stroke of the inner rail, it is necessary to design the inner rail so as to have a length as long as that of the outer rail.
Generally, in the conventional slide rail (unit) of the structure mentioned above, both the inner and outer rails have linear shape, and the drawer is hence pulled out linearly. In such linear structure, when the drawer is pulled out linearly, there may cause a case that the drawer collides with an obstacle or the drawer can not be easily pulled out, thus being inconvenient.